‘God Is Dead’ Drawing to Remain Displayed in Public School Classroom — Is It Art…or an Outrage?

Dave Urbanski

Aug 18, 2013 7:29 pm

A student-created poster inspired by the Arthur Miller play, “The Crucible,” has drawn attention in one Georgia public school because of one phrase it depicts:

“God is Dead.”

(Credit: WAGA-TV)

While it’s a quote from the play, the poster on which it appears hangs in a classroom in Alcovy High School in Newton County, Ga., and that has one mother very concerned.

“It made my daughter very uncomfortable,” Crystal Mitchell told WAGA-TV. “If my child can’t pray in school and they’ve taken religion out of school, for this to be plastered on the walls of school, is a huge concern for me.”

(Credit: WAGA-TV)

In response Mitchell started a Facebook page, “God Is Alive In Newton,” which has garnered nearly 700 likes as of Sunday evening.

Others view the poster differently, saying it’s art that features a well-known line in the play about the Salem Witch trials that Miller wrote, WAGA reports, to symbolize the hunt for Communists during the McCarthy era.

“Thousands of students read this book every year,” said Sherri Davis-Viniard of Newton County Schools. “If it’s not appropriate on the classroom wall, where is it appropriate?”

(Credit: WAGA-TV)

While the school won’t remove the drawing, Mitchell says school leaders will meet with freshmen and sophomores to explain the context of the poster and others.

After that decision, Mitchell wrote on her Facebook page: “So it’s not a total loss on our end.”